If The Man In Black In ‘Westworld’ Isn’t William, Then Who Is He?

There are only two episodes left of Westworld before the show goes on an extended hiatus to film its second season. As such, the screener well has run dry for critics because someone always manages to spoil the ending, and if the narrative keeps rocketing the way it is, there are some huge reveals waiting at the end of the season finale. Hopefully one of those reveals is the identity of the Man in Black (Ed Harris) so fans can finally put to bed whether or not William (Jimmi Simpson) is the same character in an earlier timeline.

Truly, I hope it turns out the Man in Black and William are different people, if only so that all of Dolores’ character growth and awakening grasp on her reality isn’t undone for another three decades while William grows up to be a psychopath. And while last night’s “Trace Decay” provided the strongest suggestions yet that audiences are witnessing multiple timelines, there is nothing to indicate William and Dolores aren’t in the present (whenever that happens to be). If anything, the town Dolores is from being buried up to the church steeple indicates William is part of the current narrative and not a hyper-real memory of the past as Ford looks at the same church steeple while ruminating on his new narrative.

This lines up with a scene from “Dissonance Theory” where someone from Behavior is sent to fetch Dolores from Las Mudas as they cannot tell if she’s with a guest or not since Ford’s new narrative is sending the park into chaos. It is only when William confirms Dolores is with him that the Behavior Specialist backs off. Now it’s possible Ford has thrown narrative monkey wrenches into the park multiple times, but it seems reasonable to believe William and the Man in Black are simply different guests.

But if that is the case, it reopens the question of who the Man in Black is and why he gets such preferential guest treatment even by Westworld standards. Right now we know little of him, more than ever now after his monologue in “Trace Decay.” Married for thirty years, the Man in Black is a father and philanthropist who lost is wife a year ago and — in his grief — set off the chain of events that would lead to Maeve’s (Thandie Newton) awakening. Weird that his marriage year coincides with the first major disaster the park suffered…or is it? If the Man in Black is not William, I suggest he is the lone survivor of Westworld’s deadly breakdown in its early days. He’s Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin).

I’ve argued before that HBO’s Westworld exists in the same timeline as the original 1973 film. Over the weekend, to put my money where my mouth is, I sat down to watch the Michael Crichton version. Coming into the film with two months worth of stories from the new version made it impossible to divest the two. The original Westworld had a pace akin to a snail (it took a full hour out of an hour and twenty-eight-minute runtime before the robots began to malfunction), but there are still so many ambiguous loose ends left by the time the credits roll, it’s easy to start filling in the gaps with speculation. If Ford and Arnold wanted to wrest complete control of their world back from the Delos goons, what better way than to allow an “accident” on Delos watch that kills everyone in the park? Everyone except Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin), who manages to outwit the robotic Gunslinger (Yul Brynner). The film ends before Martin leaves the park, leaving it possible he only delayed his untimely demise. But we know Delos sends in a clean-up team as the park is up and running again in the 1976 sequel Futureworld. With the Gunslinger dead and all the other hosts powered down, it seems likely Martin could’ve survived until he was found. But what is a corporation to do with the lone survivor of a catastrophic failure in park security? Pay him off, obviously.

MGM

During his vacation at Westworld, audiences learn lawyer Peter Martin went through a messy divorce six months prior, but he doesn’t seem distraught about it. If anything, he seems perfectly content with the outcome as it means a good life for his kids. When he first arrives at the park, Martin feels silly but quickly gets into the spirit of things. The look on his face during a bar brawl is one of childlike glee. He enjoys shooting the Gunslinger. He enjoys drinking to excess. He enjoys the warmth of a robot prostitute. But then it all goes wrong. One wouldn’t hold it against Martin if he never wanted to return. Of course, people work through trauma differently, and it’s entirely possible Martin would want to return, to face his fears and extract cathartic revenge on the hosts.

So imagine this is how it plays out. Martin is rescued from the wreckage. As a lawyer, Martin is able to wring a ridiculously large sum of money from Delos as amends for his suffering. Martin then uses that money to become a titan of business, a philanthropist, a god. He remarries — after all, 30 years of marriage means the Man in Black didn’t meet his wife until his was well into adulthood — but the trauma of the park has indelibly changed Martin as a person. This leads to strife in the marriage that ultimately ends in his wife’s suicide. Also, as part of his settlement, Martin can visit Westworld at will, and is even granted special privileges not afforded to regular guests. This would explain why he can kill hosts with impunity, scalp them, and even his past transgression of taking them apart to see how they work. Haunted by his past, Martin even takes on the visage of his original tormentor, becoming the Man in Black.

This theory would give some pathos to the Man In Black’s journey. He’s spent so long trying to figure out why the hosts turned on the guests, the black cloud of survivor’s guilt hanging over every aspect of his life. It turns his search for the Maze into a white whale. If only Martin can get to the center of the maze, he can discover the real reason behind the hosts’ existence.

Or maybe he’s just William. We’ll find out (hopefully) by the end of the month.

Actually, the buried church steeple is evidence that they are in the past. Because that steeple is what Ford has been digging up these past few episodes. So that whole part of the park should be either under construction or completely unburied in the present timeline.

Wouldn’t that mean that Dolores is flashing forward in time when she sees the park with William? That seems a little much. I don’t recall a scene in which Ford is digging up the church, if anything I thought he had buried it in order to facilitate his new narrative…

The town was where they trained the new hosts before the park opened. Dolores is an original host so she was flashing back to her memories of being there in the beginning. They showed it in an earlier episode. In this episode the Delos executive said that Ford dug up all a whole town for his new narrative.

Yeah I remember that dancing scene, but I thought the Delos rep was talking about Ford digging to create a NEW town. As I saw it, he buried the original training ground town (possibly to prevent Dolores or other hosts from precisely the flashback she experience, possibly to bury the past and Arnold’s role in it) and planned to ‘pave it over’ in order to make way for the new narrative. I don’t think he’s digging the old town back up…

Another point in favor of multiple timelines: The woman who greets William when he arrives at Westworld was the woman who stabbed Teddy with the arrow with the MiB. The MiB states, “I thought they retired you.” Implying that she had not been in operation at the park for some time.

There is a buried town. When Ford first mentions that he is creating a new narrative he stands in front of the steeple of the buried town. Then he starts digging. We see the big digging machines and all the work that goes into it. Again, the church steeple has been indicated as the site of the new narrative so we can assume that the digging is taking place there, since there is something buried there. From a storytelling standpoint, if something is buried and a character is digging, he is probably digging up the buried thing, otherwise why have it be buried in the story?

I think that host’s (Angela) role has been overplayed in the William/MiB theory — MiB has been in the park for a LONG time, there’s no reason to believe MiB wouldn’t have encountered her before, only to run into her later. This doesn’t mean he’s William, only that they’ve met.

You’re drawing a false correlation — we see Ford staring at the steeple when he announces his new narrative, this does not mean that the new narrative starts here. Ford + steeple + digging does not equal digging at steeple.

I mean the implication is there. From a directing standpoint that’s what focusing on an object while someone is talking about something means. It means that that thing is important to what they are currently talking about. You have to remember that this story is being told by the writers and director and they included these things for a reason. Why would the writers include a line that mentioned that he hadn’t seen in her in a long time if it wasn’t relevant?

Yeah, the implication is that Ford is building something new over something old, something that he has buried (both externally and internally) and hopes to bury deeper. This is not complicated film grammar. Please explain the linear logic behind 1) the town being a testing ground; 2) Dolores existing in the testing ground; 3) Dolores returning to the now-buried testing ground and having memories of it; 4) The testing ground being dug back up.

The story is not being told in a linear fashion, but that doesn’t mean it lacks linear logic if you go beyond “I see A and then B and then C; therefore, A+B=C”

You’re drawing a false correlation — we see Ford staring at the steeple when he announces his new narrative, this does not mean that the new narrative starts here. Ford + steeple + digging does not equal digging at steeple.

They aren’t in the past in episode 5 when Dolores and William reach Paraiah she is pulled out of the park by Ford (at his current old age) and questioned. During the questioning Ford asks her when her last contact with Arnold was she replies 34 years 42 days 7 hours ago. That puts her indisputably in contemporary time.

Further her original Father’s melt down corresponded to Ford’s reverie update resulting in his retirement and replacement by the mustachioed host. The same host who she said goodbye to before meeting William for the first time. This also places the Delores William meeting in contemporary time.

The man in black is most probably a founding investor/member of the board. That would be why he gets whatever he wants, and why he knows about and wants to find Arnold’s secret. It also explains his quasi adversarial relationship with Ford.

It looked like to me that Delores is retracing her trip(s) to Paraiah, and is recalling past visits. That’s was she was seeing herself in the parade. Remember when she saw herself alone in the graveyard, and in the next scene, she was with William and the others. And at the end, she was on the train with William and Lawrence, and then, she was alone in the next scene. She is retracing her visits, and recalling past memories. So we don’t really know which time that Ford pulled her out.
Yes, Delores says goodbye to Father #2, and later on, she meets William in Sweetwater. That doesn’t mean these were two scenes from two time periods.
I’m hoping that it isn’t two different time periods because it is more fun being wrong and surprised!

It’s obvious both Felix and Sylvester are hosts. Maeve is able to tell the hosts what to do with her new found power and when Sylvester asked why Felix did it, Maeve responded with ‘because I told him to’. And then after cutting sylvestors throat she instructs Felix to repair him with what is a tool that is sitting there to repair the hosts.

Somebody sent these two to manipulate Maeve, my bet is on Ford. I mean Ford has made it abundantly clear that he knows everything that is going on in the park, why should we expect this to be the exception? Am I the only one seeing this?

I think you’re confusing plot and story here. The point is that humans are as malleable and capable of being influenced as robots. Maeve was already programmed to be capable of control and manipulation; she had control of Felix, who was shown to be curious about life (the bird experiment) well before she woke up; she understood his curiosity immediately. Felix is well-meaning and optimistic — she took advantage.

Sylvester is self-interested and the same insecure boss we’ve all come across — asserting his ‘power’ as loudly as possible because he has none. Also, easily manipulated by anyone.

Remember how she got that gross dude to strangle her to death? She told him to. Not because of Matrix powers, because she knows how to tap into the base impulses that Ford often monologues upon.

Meanwhile, hosts and guests are VERY clearly established to function identically on a biological level, except for the programming part (Felix explains this to her, for fuck’s sake!!!). A repair tool that works on hosts would therefore work on guests.

Hey, Donna, welcome! I LOVE your theory. I’d suggest that it’s a bit of a stretch, in that it requires knowledge of the previous film, but I can totally see them providing the necessary backstory in the ninth episode.

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